


Ruined

by yourinsomnia



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: AkiHika: soap opera the guide part 2, Cats, Cohabitation, Domestic Fluff, M/M, orange cats are a thing in my AkiHika fics, touya's hair is fabulous, tribute to Kay's hairporn fic sort of, tropey tropes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-25 13:30:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3812302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourinsomnia/pseuds/yourinsomnia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shindou ruins Touya’s life with his existence. Touya ruins Shindou’s life with his hair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ruined

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meguri_aite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meguri_aite/gifts).



> Dear Kay, I wrote this fic attempting to pay tribute to your wonderful hair porn fic that’s now a fandom classic but the story took on a life of its own and I think I pretty much utterly failed. Still, there is some hair in this fic, and I hope you enjoy some AkiHika shenanigans nonetheless. Happy belated birthday, and I hope you continue being such an awesome force in the fandom :) 
> 
> Enormous thanks to [Caminante](http://archiveofourown.org/users/caminante), who at this point can be soundly considered the BNF beta of the Hikago fandom, for all the thorough betaing and advice.

There were good reasons to move in together of course, and Touya tried to remind himself of those on daily basis. It was more economical if they were roommates and split the rent, it was easier to find time to play each other, and it was a hell of a lot more convenient than having Shindou over at Touya’s place constantly.

But there were also severe downsides to living together that Touya, even in his wildest nightmares, could not have foreseen.

Once, Touya came back late in the evening to find the kitchen flooded with water and soapy bubbles up to his ankles. It turned out that Shindou had finally decided to confront the dishwasher; but having absolutely no previous experience with a dishwasher, he’d loaded up the machine with about five cups of detergent.

“There were a lot of dirty dishes,” Shindou explained while Touya looked over the wreckage of their kitchen and contemplated terminating the lease that very same night.

“And you waited all this time to clean it up, precisely why?” Touya asked.

“I thought that maybe you wanted to join in the fun?” Shindou replied while blowing a handful of soapy bubbles in Touya’s direction.

***

There was also that time when Shindou came home with a grocery bag that appeared to be squirming and meowing.

“No,” Touya murmured.

“We need to feed him,” Shindou said and proceeded to carry the tiny, orange creature into their pristine (no thanks to Shindou) kitchen. 

“Shindou!” Touya called after him while trying to not to let his internal panic seep into his voice. “You cannot just bring a cat into our home. It might have fleas and all sorts of deadly diseases. You need to get it checked out at the vet first.”

“I already did,” Shindou said, inspecting an assortment of cat food. “Sort of. I got him at an adoption event. But he most certainly does not have any deadly diseases.” 

“Are you absolutely sure?” Touya asked. 

He knew that the battle was lost when after dinner the kitten, who had green eyes nestled in abundant orange fur like two peas scattered in a golden field, lounged on their couch licking himself and eyeing Touya with the disdain of someone who already had dominion over their apartment.

“Isn’t he just adorable?” Shindou cooed.

***  
The cat, who’d grown into a heavy orange monster in no time, developed a habit of jumping on top of the goban in the middle of their games, messing up the position of stones and completely disrupting Touya’s concentration. And to add to Touya’s misfortune, Shindou found it all terribly amusing.

“I think Buryure wants to learn go,” Shindou said during one such episode.

Creme Brulee was the name that Shindou had picked out for the cat. Touya figured the name came from one of those daytime baking shows aimed at housewives that he caught Shindou watching from time to time and even Touya had to admit it was a rather suitable name; as Buryure'd grown from kitten to cat, the tip of the his fur acquired a dark tinge that reminded Touya of the burnt coating of creme brulee.

“Or he’s just a selfish creature with no sense of tact who is constantly vying for your attention,” Touya retorted.

“Vying for my attention? Wait..Don’t tell me you’re actually jealous of Buryure?"

“What a preposterous suggestion,” Touya said, slamming down a stone with controlled annoyance.

***

There were also all those times when Shindou had occupied the bathroom in the morning for way too long, fixing his nonsensical hair and making Touya almost but not quite late on several occasions. It had been a grave mistake indeed to get a two bedroom apartment with only one bath. 

Or all those times when Shindou had blasted awful, headache-inducing music while cooking or cleaning up, insisting that it energized him.

Or the time Shindou had dragged a second fridge into their kitchen, claiming he needed it to store his exhaustive collection of manga. 

The final straw in the never-ending sequence of cohabiting disasters was when Shindou began staring at Touya.

***

Touya was used to Shindou being focused on him and his go, too focused, obsessed even, and if he were to be honest, he operated the exact same way—there was very little about Shindou that escaped his attention. Still, the way Shindou began watching him was uncanny in both its persistence and intensity. 

It started out gradually at first—an odd look during breakfast, a lingering gaze when Touya returned home exhausted, his jacket off and tie askew, a glimpse through Shindou’s impossible yellow bangs when they were playing a game. 

Touya considered the possibility that perhaps Shindou was worried about him. He did get sick once and wasn't able to attend his matches for a few days after Shindou measured his temperature and ordered him to stay home. When he recovered, he’d hoped that the staring would desist but it actually got progressively worse after that. 

It was especially obvious when Shindou thought Touya wasn’t noticing it like when they would watch TV together in the evening or when Touya was cooking or tutoring students at home. 

It was all very frustrating and whenever Touya asked Shindou if anything was the matter, Shindou would just brush it off. Secretly, Touya harbored a few theories of his own as to what was causing his roommate's odd behavior but he wasn’t quite ready to discuss them and in any case, none of his theories could have prepared him for the unraveling of the actual reason which occurred one inauspicious Sunday evening. 

Touya had just finished showering and decided to join Shindou on the couch. Shindou had Bryurure on his lap and was watching a replay of yet another showdown between Ogata and Kuwabara for the Honinbo title. However, Shindou became increasingly more interested in stealing glances at Touya than watching the game as soon as Touya had positioned himself some distance away from Shindou on the couch. 

Touya wondered how long he could put up with Shindou's surreptitious glances before he blew up and concluded it wasn’t very long. 

“Shindou,” Touya said, toweling his wet hair. “You're doing it again.” 

“Doing what?” Shindou asked, and hastily looked away. 

“That. Staring. Am I growing two heads? Am I sick with some terminal illness that everyone except me knows about?”

“What?” Shindou said, getting so visibly agitated that Bryurure was forced to jump off his lap. “Where did you get that awful idea? Are you feeling sick? Do you need to go to the doctor?”

“No, Shindou. Calm down,” Touya sighed. “Never mind. Forget I said anything.”

They sat in silence for a few moments. Touya didn’t even attempt to tune into the game. His mind was whirring with thoughts that mostly involved Shindou and his mental stability. Bryurure, having decided to stay away from Shindou for a while, was cozying up next to him now, for once being properly catlike and somewhat likeable. Touya petted him absentmindedly. 

The silence between them was broken some moments later when Shindou said, “Your hair has grown very long lately.”

He said it with such exaggerated casualness that Touya knew it must be significant. 

“Does my long hair bother you?” Touya asked. 

“Yes, it bothers me very much,” Shindou replied without a moment’s hesitation. 

Touya was tempted to reply with, "deal with it", the way he'd once heard Yoshitaka say while gloating to Shindou about getting into the preliminaries first but it wouldn't do to sink to their level of communicative deficiencies. 

“And _why_ does it bother you?” Touya decided to ask instead.

“Well, for one, it’s everywhere! Just the other day, I found a very long, black strand of hair on the couch.”

“You found my hair on the couch? _One strand_?”

“Well, it’s not just on the couch!” Shindou said defensively and Touya noticed that his cheeks were beginning to color. “It’s in the bathroom too. Have you seen your hair brush? It looks like a hedgehog.”

“A hedgehog?” 

“Yes, you know, the small spiky critters? You know what, forget it. Just grow your hair however long you want. Become Rapunzel for all I care!” Shindou huffed and glued his gaze back to the TV. 

“Rapunzel?” 

Scowling was not achieving any results and since he was unable to find words to express the full scope of his discontent with the present situation, Touya decided to retreat to his room. 

***

Touya realized his hair had gotten awfully long. In the past, his mother had always scheduled an appointment for him at the salon she frequented. Now that he wasn't living with her, and there was no one to pester him about his hair, he'd completely forgotten that such a thing needed his attention.

He considered calling his mother and asking her to schedule an appointment for him, but now that he lived on the other side of town, it seemed like a complete waste of his time and energy to make his way there just for a haircut. 

Besides, how hard could it be? Feeling determined, Touya found a suitable pair of scissors (he really hoped they weren't the scissors that Shindou used to trim Bryurure's claws) and headed to the bathroom.

Once there, he stared at his reflection, trying to find the best angle from which to attack his hair. His hair really had grown long...It fell freely past his shoulders. There was just so much of it. Surely, it would be fine even if he did mess up a little...

“What are you doing?” Shindou all but shrieked from the threshold of the bathroom.

“What does it look like?” Touya asked. 

“You are about to cut your hair. And you're going to make a horrible mess of it.”

“I’m not going to make a mess of it,” Touya scowled. He’d been doing a lot of that lately, he realized. “Why do you think I’m going to make a mess of it?” 

“Because your cuts have always been immaculate. There is absolutely no way that you’ve done those on your own and since this is your first time cutting your hair, you’re going to ruin it. Completely.”

Shindou was right of course, but Touya didn't want to increase his smugness by telling him so. Instead, Touya produced a very long-suffering sigh, put down the scissors and said, “I guess I’ll have to make an appointment for a cut.” 

“Why do you need to cut it?” Shindou asked, his face unreadable. 

“Because you said it bothers you!” Touya yelled. Did he always lose his temper so easily or was it only when Shindou was involved? 

“Why do you have to care what bothers me?” Shindou said, on the verge of yelling as well. 

“Because we live together? Because I’m trying to make sure you're comfortable living with me? Because I’m an adult? I don’t know why I try though since clearly, my efforts are wasted on you.”

Touya was expecting Shindou to lose his cool completely at that point, or stalk out or do anything except look down at the floor in quiet frustration. 

“Touya,” Shindou said and looked up to meet his gaze. “It doesn’t bother me that way.”

“What do you mean? You said it’s everywhere and it’s annoying you and…”

“No,” Shindou interrupted him. “Bryurure’s hair is everywhere too, and have you ever seen me complain?” 

When Touya said nothing, Shindou continued, “It bothers me in a different way.”

Shindou came up to stand behind Touya. In the mirror, Touya watched Shindou run his fingers through his hair, the gesture gentle and caressing. Touya watched Shindou pause and bring a lock of hair close to his lips. He saw his own stunned expression contrasted by Shindou’s soft smile. 

"Oh," Touya said, all the little pieces finally falling into place.


End file.
